Creative Cloud gives you the power to do more, collaborate easily, and deliver faster with a complete integrated toolset. To see what’s new in the video apps, check out this video. I’m pleased to announce the Fall 2017 update to After Effects CC is now available. This release of After Effects improves the efficiency of motion graphics creation by streamlining your ability to create data-driven graphics and deliver high-quality VR and 3D results. And it does it all faster with GPU performance enhancements.

New ways to animate content

Build show promos, communicate schedule changes, present motion capture data, or generate the same graphic but deliver it in multiple languages with new Data Driven Animations. Animate with path points using powerful new expression access to path points on masks, shape layers, and paint brush strokes. Work with 3D elements faster with Cinema 4D Lite R19.

Motion Graphics templates, introduced in the Spring of 2017, allow After Effects users to streamline the post-production workflow by enabling Premiere Pro users to import a motion graphic into their timeline and edit parameters, such as text fields, without having to re-open After Effects to make changes. Recent benchmark studies conducted by Pheiffer Report suggested that productivity increased for users of Motion Graphics templates by almost 350 percent. Check out further findings and read the report yourself. Motion graphic artists who create titles, lower thirds, bumpers, and closing credits in After Effects can now sell Motion Graphic templates for Premiere Pro through Adobe Stock. To see the Motion Graphics template workflow in a real-world business, check out Annika König’s, video editor at Nachtblau, IBC presentation.

Immersive: a new space for new kinds of storytelling in After Effects

We’re excited to feature new tools that help you put viewers into the center of the action— from 180 storytelling to full 360 VR. A new VR Comp Editor in After Effects transforms equirectangular 360 footage into familiar, flat rectilinear images. A new Extract Cubemap in After Effects simplifies motion tracking and object removal in 360 video while the new VR Converter lets you switch on-the-fly between different immersive formats so you can ensure your final content will play well on any platform. Design immersive motion graphics experiences using the new Create VR Environment feature, including camera positions — with or without live-action footage.

New effects include VR Blur, VR Glow, VR Sharpen, VR De-noise, VR Chromatic Aberration, VR Color Gradients, VR Digital Glitch, and VR Fractal Noise. Using these features allows you to add artistry and refinement to immersive footage. Designed to work with spherical 360 imagery, the new effects deliver clean results across stitched content, including stereoscopic media, without artifacts or seamlines. Both After Effects and Premiere Pro have a variety of new features for VR, check out our IBC to see them in action.

Performance and navigation enhancements

Over the past three years, the After Effects team has made improvements to making After Effects faster and more intuitive. Building on this trajectory of innovation, the team has focused on user feedback and are deploying the following improvements for After Effects.

Performance & navigation enhancements include the ability to render layer transforms, motion blur and more effects on the GPU. Keyboard Shortcut Mapping allows you to quickly find, adjust, and customize keyboard shortcuts using a visual map like the one used in Premiere Pro and Audition. Get to work more quickly with an enhanced Start screen plus New Composition and New Composition from Footage buttons, while a new font menu allows you to set fonts as favorites or filter to see which are available via TypeKit.

To learn more about all the new features in our Fall 2017 release of After Effects, check back for deep-dive blogs that are planned in the coming weeks or view our IBC presentation. You can download the latest updates of the Creative Cloud applications from our website. Update your current version of After Effects or download a trial if you are not currently a Creative Cloud member. To see new tutorials and to get started quickly, visit our AE tutorial home page. Also, don’t forget to watch the MAX keynote.

As a follow-up to his outstanding 7-week series on How to Make Great Videos, on October 27th Jason Levine will launch three, 3-week mini-series focused on the key ways to make your fabulous videos even better: Motion Graphics, Audio & Color. Join us live on Fridays at 9amPT on the Creative Cloud Facebook channel. These sessions will be available on-demand on both Facebook and YouTube.